The above photo, taken between 1884 and 1886, is one of the earliest known of the Lincoln County courthouse, formerly the House, owned by L. G. Murphy (and later Jas. J. Dolan) & Co. At the time Billy was being held here to await his hanging, there were no outside staircases leading to the second-story balcony. Billy shot Bob Olinger from the second-story corner window on the side. The men standing in front of the building are Lincoln's lawmen at the time, with Sheriff James Brent being the man sixth from the left. John W. Poe may be the man furthest to the left.
Thursday, April 28, 1881; Lincoln, Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory---In fifteen days, Billy the Kid, who has been convicted of the murder of Sheriff William Brady, has been sentenced to be executed. Until that day arrives, he is being kept in a room on the second story of the Lincoln County courthouse, formerly the Murphy-Dolan store, at the western end of Lincoln. Sheriff Pat Garrett is over in White Oaks today, collecting taxes and possibly buying wood for Billy's gallows that still need to be built. Left in charge of the outlaw are the only two lawmen still in town. One is Deputy James W. Bell, who was a member of the White Oaks posse that tried to capture Billy and the Rustlers at the Greathouse-Kuch ranch in late November 1880. The other is Deputy "Pecos Bob" Olinger, the hulking badman, rustler, and killer. Olinger and Billy have a deep hatred for each other which has existed since the Lincoln County War, when they fought on opposite sides. The hatred was cemeted when Olinger ambushed and killed Billy's friend John Jones, who, ironically, fought alongside Olinger in the war. In the days since he's been guarding Billy, Olinger has made constant threats and taunts to him, trying to goad him into making an escape attempt so that Olinger can fire his newly-purchased double-barrled shotgun into him. In response, Billy just taunts right back, makes jokes, and stays in a surprisingly jovial mood, which in itself angers the brutish deputy. Bell, on the other hand, may have some resentment for Billy, who he holds responsible for the death of his friend James Carlyle, but manages to keep it in check and treats him like any other prisoner. Billy and Bell even play cards together every once in a while to pass the time. Before he left town yesterday, Garrett instructed Bell and Olinger to watch Billy like a hawk, since he knows that given even the smallest opportunity, Billy will try to escape. Garrett knows Billy better than just about anyone, and judging from his cheerful demeanor and optimism, he knows Billy himself believes he will escape.Around 5:00 PM, Olinger takes five other prisoners that are being held in the courthouse over to the Wortley Hotel across the street for dinner. Billy himself is deemed to dangerous to be taken out of the courthouse for dinner, and instead has meals brought to him by his friend Sam Corbet. With Olinger gone, Bell alone is left guarding Billy. At some point, Billy asks to be taken to the privy, located in the backyard of the courthouse. Bell obliges, and with Billy in shackles and Bell with his rifle, the two walk down the stairs and out to the backyard. Billy enters the privy, shortly after emerges, and begins walking back up the courthouse stairs, with Bell following closely behind.
Moments later, a pistol shot is fired in the courthouse and is heard throughout town. Godfrey Gauss, the former Tunstall ranch cook who is working in a vegetable patch behind the building, runs around the corner to the west side of the courthouse and sees Bell run out the door. He is bleeding from a cut in his head and from a bullet wound through his torso. He stumbles near Gauss then fells to the ground, dead. Meanwhile, in the courthouse, Billy slips off his wrist irons and throws them out a window, walks to the armory on the second-story, and grabs Olinger's shotgun. He then walks over to the east end of the building and gazes out a window looking onto the street and the side-yard. A few seconds later, Olinger rushes out of the Wortley Hotel yelling "Did Bell kill the Kid?!" He quickly runs into the side-yard, just below the window Billy is positioned in, and hears Gauss yell "The Kid has killed Bell!" Just then, from his second-story perch, Billy calls out a cheerful "Hello Bob!" Olinger freezes in place, looks up, sees the two barrels of his own shotgun staring down at him, and quietly replies to Gauss, "Yes, and he's killed me too." With that, Billy pulls both triggers and fires thirty-six buckshot into Pecos Bob's face, right shoulder, chest, and side. What's left of the deputy falls to ground, dead. Billy then smashes the shotgun over the window sill and throws the broken pieces at Olinger's body, shouting "Take that, you damned son-of-a-bitch! You won't corral me with that again!"
Billy retreats inside and returns to the armory, where he grabs a Winchester rifle, two pistols, and two cartridge belts loaded with ammunition. By now, quite a crowd has gathered in the street, and Billy steps out onto the balcony to address them. He informs them that he had not meant to kill Bell, simply lock him in a room until he escaped town, but when Bell tried to flee, he was left with no choice but to gun him down. He goes on to say that he will leave town as soon as he gets his ankle shackles off and that he does not want to kill anyone else, but if he is interfered with, he will not hesitate to do so. Two citizens, J. A. LaRue and the manager of the Wortley Hotel known as Lilly, grab guns and try to stop Billy. However, LaRue is himself stopped by his wife, and Lilly is stopped by two friends. No one else makes any attempt to stop Billy, they all simply watch him.
Billy shouts down to his friend Godfrey Gauss and asks him to get a horse ready for him and to bring him something to pry the ankle shackles off with. A few moments later, Gauss tosses a prospector's pick up to Billy through a window. For the next hour or so, Billy works on the shackles with the pick. Finally, he is able to get one free, but the other one will not give. Knowing that time is a luxury he does not have, Billy simply gets a piece of string and ties the broken end of the chain to his belt. Grabbing his guns and ammunition belts, Billy walks down the stairs and into the backyard. As he passes the corpse of Bell, he looks down with remorse and says to Gauss who is standing in the side-yard, "I'm sorry I had to kill him, but I couldn't help it." He then walks out of the yard, passes the bloody pulp that was Olinger, kicks it, and again says that he won't corral him anymore. Billy approaches Gauss who has saddled a horse belonging to County Clerk Billy Burt. Attempting to mount up, Billy is bucked off, due to the loose hanging leg chain scaring the horse. The horse takes off down the street and Billy orders nearby Alexander Nunnelly, one of the prisoners Olinger had taken to the Wortley Hotel, to go get it for him. Nunnelly refuses, though, saying he doesn't want to be connected as an accomplice. Aiming a pistol at Nunnelly, Billy again orders him to get the horse and tells him "You can tell them I made you do it." Faced with this, Nunnelly retrieves the horse. Going slower this time so as not to spook the skittish animal, Billy saddles up successfully. He then rides to the center of the crowd and says "Tell Billy Burt I'll send his pony back, and don't look for me this side if Ireland. Adios, boys!" At a gallop, Billy rides out the west end of town, singing as he goes. With this daring escape, Billy the Kid has gone from being a local celebrity and infamous outlaw to a national legend.
NOTE: To this day, it is not entirely sure where Billy got the pistol he used to kill Bell. One theory is that his friend Sam Corbet hid the pistol in the privy and that Billy hid it under his shirt until he and Bell were back inside the courthouse. Another, although very unlikely theory, is that Billy ran up the stairs, broke into the armory, grabbed the pistol, returned to the top of the stairs, and shot Bell. This theory was proposed by Pat Garrett himself, but is really quite ridiculous, since how could the Kid, in shackles, beat Bell up the stairs, grab a pistol from the armory, and return to the stairs before Bell himself reached the top? A third theory is that as Billy and Bell walked up the stairs, Billy slipped one of his wrist irons free and swung it around, hitting Bell in the head with it. Dazed, Bell and Billy engaged in a scuffle and fell to the floor, during which Billy grabbed Bell's own pistol. Bell then stood up and ran back down the stairs, only to be quickly shot by Billy, still lying on the floor. This third version is the most likely. Gauss said he heard a scuffle from inside and Bell did have a bleeding gash on his head, possibly caused by the wrist iron striking him. Also, John Meadows, a friend of Billy's, later said that this was the version Billy himself told. The way in which Bell was shot also supports this theory. Bell was not shot head on, but the bullet hit the wall first, ricocheted, and then struck Bell through the side. If Billy had been standing and been able to aim at Bell, it's likely the bullet would have hit him directly. The ricochet, though, seems to indicate that Billy was forced to fire in haste, without any time to aim, and from a poor position. No single theory will ever be accepted by all, but these are primary three to pick from.
